All England’s fighting qualities must come to the fore if they are to put today’s faulty batting behind them in the final Test at Eden Park.

Alastair Cook’s tourists came up short collectively against the swinging ball as they were bowled out for 204 by Trent Boult (six for 68) and Tim Southee.

Brendon McCullum chose not to enforce the follow-on, but instead augment a lead of 239 – and the Kiwi captain was perhaps wishing he had done otherwise after his team stumbled too, to 35 for three at stumps on day three.

England could therefore still hope to escape New Zealand unbeaten and with a share of the series, or even an unlikely victory.

Matt Prior, whose 73 was the dominant force in a century stand with Joe Root after England faltered to 72 for five, insists his team-mates have it in them to put things right.

“I know it feels like the world’s over, but it’s not really,” he said.

“We’ve got some very good cricketers who can put in match-winning, or match-saving performances.”

England certainly did neither at the first time of asking.

“We came in this morning with a plan, and that certainly wasn’t it,” added Prior.

“There’s no obvious reason.

“It’s not like everyone feels like they’re a walking wicket at the moment.

“We’ve had a couple of bad days, and it’s certainly something we need to address – and we will do.

“We’re going to get another chance in the second innings.

“That in a funny way is a good thing. You get straight back on the horse, and guys are going to have to stick their hands up.”

England have found trouble on tour several times over the past two winters and, although they were unable to extricate themselves against Pakistan last year, they famously did so in India before Christmas.

“The thing I love about this team is we might do it the hard way, but we fight - and we keep fighting,” added Prior.

“We’ve shown that in Dunedin, in Nagpur. These are memories we’ll pull on and use, and know we have the skill and ability to get something out of this game still.”

Prior was encouraged for the long term, as well as the immediate, by Root, who was unfazed by a perilous situation and went on to bat more than four hours for a painstaking 45.

“I think the way Rooty played was fantastic. To have the control and discipline and belief in his own ability to hang around for that amount of time.

“New Zealand were on top and were pretty chatty. He took it all in his stride and showed an awesome amount of temperament to get us into a comeback position.

“Unfortunately, I got out at a horrendous time – and the rest is history.”

Root and Jonny Bairstow are an especially inexperienced middle-order pair, just above Prior at number seven, thanks to the absence of the injured Kevin Pietersen.

“Kev’s a big player and any team that loses a big player will miss them,” said Prior.

“But we have every faith in every player in the XI going out to represent England and it’s now up to us to stick our hands up and perform well for the rest of this Test match.”

Boult, who thoroughly deserved his success, acknowledged his team too had shown batting frailty today, but he still had plenty of room for optimism that New Zealand could go on to win a home series against England for only the second time.

“We need to push on tomorrow, 30 for three wasn’t in the plan, but to have a 280-run lead is a pretty good position.

“There were a couple of signs of a bit of up-and-down (bounce) going on, so that’s pretty exciting to see from a bowling point of view.

“We’ll look forward to day five, but tomorrow is a big day as well.”

It is perhaps even more so for England, behind in this match from day one when Cook put the Kiwis in and then had to watch them pile up 250 for one by the close.

Prior takes issue with anyone prepared to argue Cook should have done any different, given the green tinges on the drop-in surface at start of play.

“Every single person in this room, looking at that wicket on the first morning, would have bowled,” he said.

“It’s very easy to say, with hindsight, ’Oh no, you should have batted’.

“They batted well and we haven’t batted well enough today.

“The toss is irrelevant right now.”

In any case, Prior has great faith in his captain – first out, for just four, in England’s first innings – to prove his mettle at the second attempt.

“Cooky is pretty unflappable, and knows this game well enough,” Prior added.

“It doesn’t always go to plan, but I don’t doubt we’ll see something from him yet in this Test match for sure.

“He’s a pretty determined bloke, and there’s still a lot of cricket to play.”